Loading ...Sony Ericsson G900 review
By Michell Bak, 21st of June 2008
The G900 and its sibling, G700, represent a new kind of Sony Ericsson smart phone products, that don’t look or feel like a smart phone, yet perform and deliver as one would expect a smart phone to do. These G’s are targeted at the normal everyday consumer, who wants a little extra something from his phone, while still keeping the price low. Both phones can be used almost solely without the use of a stylus, separating them from Sony Ericsson’s previous smart phones. In a very good way, that is.
The G700 and G900 will sell like hot cakes, and in this review, we’ll be focusing on the right-out-of-the-oven hot G900, with a few additional features, such as a better camera and wireless LAN (W-LAN), when compared to the cheaper G700.
Official product pictures of the Sony Ericsson G900
Advantages
- UMTS, WLAN 802.11b/g, and USB 2.0
- Bluetooth 2.0 + A2DP
- Stylish dark brown or red design
- Small, thin and light for a smart phone
- Bright 2.4 inch large transreflective touch screen with nice colours
- Very easy to use
- Visually improved user interface
- Easy-to-use standby panels
- Quick and beautiful Media application
- Fastest UIQ device so far
- Lots of 3rd party applications available for UIQ
- 5 mega pixel camera with touch auto focus and flash
- ‘Bang for the buck’!
Disadvantages
- No HSDPA, or even EDGE
- Network reception strength is only mediocre
- No built-in GPS
- Somewhat slow Bluetooth transfer speeds
- No memory card comes bundled
- No physical soft keys like on G700
- Minor software bugs
- Tends to get slow when running many applications
- Mediocre battery life
Being a smart phone, it’s only fair to compare it to another smart phone. That, however, is nearly impossible, as the Sony Ericsson G700 is the only smart phone similar to the G900. The fact is that there are currently no direct competitors to either of these phones, considering their feature set, price and marketing segment. We are sure to see more phones like these from Sony Ericsson, however, and I don’t doubt other manufacturers will follow as well.
The G900 comes in a grey sales package, reasonably sized for this phone. Apart from the G900 and a battery for it, the box contains a charger, a wired headset (HPM-62), USB cable (DCU-65), an extra stylus, lots of manuals and sales content, as well as a software CD. You’d think there’d be more to it than that, but no, that’s actually all there is in the rather large box. It’s a pity they haven’t included a desk stand or even a memory card. My guess is that this was to keep the costs low. You can find our G900 picture unboxing here, and a video unboxing just below.
Visually pleasing
The G900 is a relatively normal sized candybar phone with rounded edges and glossy plastic parts. Its large 2.4 inch TFT display is well-saturated and quite bright, although it fails to impress outside in sunlight. The display is not only large for a phone in this segment, it’s also touch sensitive, although some will argue it’s too small for a touch screen. Personally, I didn’t experience any problems with its size, as you’ll rarely need to use the display, and when you do, the display size isn’t limiting in any way.
The G900 measures 106 x 49 x 13 millimetres making it a very small smart phone. In addition to that, its weight is below the magical 100 grams, scaling in at just 99 grams, which is very impressive. G900 is available in two colours - Dark Brown & Dark Red.
Based on photos of the G900, you’ll probably think the keypad isn’t that nice to use. This is not the case, though. The keypad is actually quite easy to use, and it gives a good tactile feedback. Although I would have loved a tiny bit more space between the keys, it’s not much of a problem for me, and only the fewest people will find themselves in trouble with the keypad.
The backside of G900 is - in my opinion - one of its weaknesses. The material used is simply a bit too slippery for me, and I would have loved to see something more rubberised and maybe even rippled like on G700, as that feels really nice. Also, the top part of the back, where the camera is located, is made of glossy plastic that is very liked to get scratched fairly quickly.
On the left side we’ve got a FastPort connector, a status LED, the stylus, as well as a Memory Stick Micro (M2) card slot hidden behind the battery cover. The right side sports volume/zoom controls, a quick keypad lock key as well as a camera shutter key.
Nothing is located at the bottom of the phone, and only the power button is at the top of the phone.
The battery in G900 is a standard BST-33 battery (950 mAh). Official claims are that it’ll supply enough juice to keep the G900 running in up to 380 hours of standby or 12 hours of talk on GSM networks. Personally, I feel this is set a bit too high. I’m not getting more than 2 - 3 days of normal use out of G900 - that should at least have been 3 - 4 days if the official statements were correct.
Hot, funky & re-organized
The G900 is powered by a 208 MHz ARM9 CPU and a work memory of 128 megabytes of RAM. While the CPU isn’t exactly top-class, the amount of RAM memory is excellent, and it’s virtually impossible to run out of RAM memory, unless you’re really trying hard, and have opened a good fifty applications or so at the same time. Personally, I’ve got about 25 applications running in the background now, and the phone is still quite snappy, although it’s slightly worse than with only a few running in the background.
The G900 is based on the Symbian OS (Operating System) 9.1 with the UIQ 3.0 user interface running above the Symbian kernel. Normally this would mean a graphically not so interesting user interface, and - for most people - an interface that’s hard to use. Sony Ericsson has changed that stereotype with the G700 & G900, making the user interface easy to use for everyone. It looks like they’ve really worked on the usability this time, making sure icons were big & easy to use. They’ve also totally re-organized the interface by hiding a few of the most geeky features, and making it easier to access settings, entertainment applications and alike.
To prove to myself that I’m not just making all of this up, and that the changes are more than just superficial, I asked both my non-technical mother and a non-technical friend of mine to try it out, and find certain applications, settings and alike. Both were able to use it without any further instructions from me, and my mother even said it’s a lot different than the others using the operating system, when I told her it’s the same operating system as in the P1 - a phone she had an extremely hard time using. My friend liked it so much, he ended up buying one. In conclusion to that, I think it’s fairly certain to say that there’s been some major changes in the operating system, user interface and generally on how you use the phone on a daily basis.
The first thing you’ll notice when turning on the G900 for the very first time is the standby panels, as shown in the screenshots above. These are highly customizable panels you can easily browse through with the navigation D-pad. The idea is just genius, and it works extremely well. You can set up to 11 active standby panels, including shortcuts, favourite contacts, tasks, calendar appointments, RSS feeds, music player and alarms. I’ve really gotten used to using the panels, and I’m hoping application developers will be able to add more panels in the future, or that Sony Ericsson eventually will add more. If you don’t like the active standby panels, you can change the standby application (yes, that’s the name of it) to either the business one, seen on P1 and W960, or simply no standby application at all, which makes it look more like a regular phone.
The menus have been optimized a bit. Instead of the old icons, they’re now almost all glossy candy blue-coloured icons. Being that these are not business phones, I don’t have any problems with it, and I did think the old ones needed a facelift, and this one seems like a good one. They’re definitely quite funky.
As always, you’ve got a selection of two menu view types - a grid view and a list view. I personally prefer the grid view, and it’s also more finger-friendly, if that’s what you’re looking for.
You can create new folders and sort applications according to what you want. This is good, as all third party applications are being placed in the ‘Entertainment’-folder, which isn’t exactly suitable for office applications or anything work related.
Another rather drastic change involves the task manager. On previous UIQ 3 phones, the task manager provided you with details about recently opened application, currently open applications, how much RAM they used, an option to end all running applications, and even a few short cuts. The task manager - now known as “Open applications” - has been drastically stripped down, and now only includes a list of open applications and the ability to end or switch between them. It’s obvious that Sony Ericsson made this change to get rid of the more geeky task manager, although it was ahead of the competitors’ offerings - now it’s just on par with them. In my eyes, this is more of a step backwards, although it’s easier for first time users to use now, which was generally the point of making the user interface more user friendly.
While a lot of things have changed, there are still bits and parts of the user interface that have not undergone any sort of plastic surgery. It’s unfortunately still possible to find small icons in the user interface that act as short cuts to various actions - these are just about impossible to finger with your finger if you’re in a rush. These icons are generally the status icons on the status bar at the very top of the phone’s display.
Another thing that has not been improved is the call logs. It’s still a bit boring looking, and it could easily be made more finger friendly, and even get its features extended a bit, such as including single call length logs, which is currently not unavailable.
Generally, the G900 software has been quite stable. I’ve experienced a few freezes while loading the Media application while running lots of applications in the background, and also a few very minor software bugs. It surprises me that these bugs are present, as they’re quite obvious - i.e. one of them is that the display doesn’t clear when you’ve locked the keypad using the keypad combination, and not the keypad lock key on the right side of the phone. Apart from that, I haven’t experienced anything unusual about the software in G900, which is good.
Handy notes and organizer
The Notes application on the G700 and G900 smart phones is - somewhat surprisingly - one of the selling points, hence the dedicated short cut key to the Notes application. Had these two phones been no different than the previous UIQ 3 phones, I would have had to bash Sony Ericsson for marketing the phones on the Notes application, as it was far from excellent. Graphically it was pretty horrible, and it lacked a few features, such as an alarm feature, which has now been added. I do however miss the ability to change the colour of your drawing pen - this was possible in older phones.
The built-in calendar seems quite good, and I find it more than sufficient to my needs. Among its features are different view modes, calendar synchronization (with PC Suite and Exchange ActiveSync), search functionality, advanced calendar entries - four different types; appointments, reminders, all day events, and anniversaries. The Tasks application makes it possible for you to set different tasks with dates & alarm for yourself, prioritize them, and add further notes if needed. It’s quite a useful application if you’ve got a lot of things on your to-do list, like I often do.
The file manager is really good. You can manage all accessible files on your phone memory and memory card, and perform various operations such as creating folders, renaming files and folders, copying and moving files/folders. You can view file properties, space available, use the built-in storage wizard to remove old files, etc., and even install and uninstall applications from the file manager. Basically, I think this is one of - if not - the best file managers in smart phones.
The Converter application is quite a capable fella’. It can convert distances, volumes, weights, temperatures, speeds, areas and currencies (you can manually update the currency exchange rates). All in all, it works quite well.
The Timer application is a tiny application to set a time for the phone to count down to. It can continue counting in the background, as long as you don’t close the application. There’s also a stopwatch application, which explains itself, I guess, with support for multiple laps. This application is also capable of running in the background.
The built-in Calculator application isn’t too spectacular. You can do a set of normal calculations, including memory functionality, and that’s about it. I’m missing more scientific features.
The G700 and G900 phones are the first with a standard UIQ flash light application like ‘normal’ Sony Ericsson feature phones. The flash light application can be set to flash as an SOS signal, on for 1 minute, on, and off.
Quickoffice 4 is bundled on the G700 and G900. It’s a rather nifty office application that handles Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, and is capable of editing these as well, with some fairly advanced formatting features, including inserting pictures, considering it’s an application for a mobile phone. The application is easy to use, and has been greatly improved compared to version 3 that was bundled with previous UIQ smart phones by Sony Ericsson.
Pdf+ is the bundled PDF reader in G700 and G900. It’s a rather decent PDF reader, and it gets the job done quite easily. Like with office documents, you can simply press a PDF document in the file manager, and Pdf+ will automatically start up and open just that document. Pdf+ features decent functionality, although it’s a tad slow from time to time - most likely because of the now rather old processor in the phone.
The business card reader is a genius application if you need it. You simply snap a picture of a business card, and the phone’s OCR software makes out the text, and automatically creates a new contact with the information found on the business card as well as a photo. It works really well, just make sure you’ve got plenty of light for the camera to get all the details in on the picture.
Touch my auto focus
The G900 sports a decent 5 mega pixel camera on the back. It’s a CMOS sensor with auto focus - with a hint. The auto focus can not only be used in the regular way, it can also be used by simply touching the area you want in focus on the display, and the phone will automatically focus on that area in particular. It’s a nice feature, and it generally works quite well, although it’s hardly something you’ll end up using a lot on a daily basis, as it takes more time to compose a photo that way. Apart from that, there’s also a powerful LED flash on the back of the G900.
The camera interface has really been lifted up a notch compared to the older solution. Everything is now accessible by using your finger only, and the menus are nicely animated with fly-out menus. Sony Ericsson has gone for a higher usability on this one as well, actually creating two settings menus. The first one holds four large icons (Scenes, Shoot mode, Flash & Focus) - these are most likely to be the settings you’ll be using the most, which is why they’re featured there. If you wish to alter the more advanced features, this can be done by first pressing the Settings icon, and then pressing it again when the basic settings have appeared. This will bring up a list of more advanced settings. In total you’ll be presented with these settings;
- Scenes - Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Twilight, Sports & Document
- Shoot mode - Normal, Panorama & Multi-shot
- Flash - Auto, On & Off
- Focus - Touch focus, Auto focus, Macro & Infinite
- Picture size - 5 MP, 3 MP, 1 MP & VGA
- White balance - Auto, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Daylight & Cloudy
- Self-timer - Off & On
- Effects - Off, Negative, Solarization, Sepia, and Black & white
- Picture quality - Economy, Normal & Fine
- Image stabilizer - Off & On
- Auto review - Off & On
- Save to - Phone Memory, Memory Stick & Memory Stick prefered
- Shutter sound - Off, Shutter sound 1, Shutter sound 2, Shutter sound 3 & Shutter sound 4
- Reset
Without further ado, here are some photo samples, all shot in auto mode. Press the thumbnails for full size views.
I believe it’s fair to say that these photos are quite decent in terms of quality. The camera generally picks up most details, although you’ll lose some as well no matter what you do. The G900 isn’t exactly great at taking pictures of just slightly dark subjects - unless you want excessive amounts of image noise, that is. Just have a look at the photo of the camera - the room was well-lit, but because the camera is black, the G900 didn’t cope with it very well, resulting in black areas with high levels of noise. Even outdoor photos in sunlight can get rather noisy, although there’s a smaller chance of it happening than indoors.
Anyway, there’s more to good pictures than image noise handling. One thing is the quality - sharpness and the amount of details the photo will end up with. Generally, the G900 delivers some nice, reasonably sharp quality shots, though with a somewhat variable level of details. Sometimes you’ll get lots of details in a photo, while it may deliver the exact opposite only moments later. This really isn’t one of its best sides, and I hope Sony Ericsson will somehow get this fixed in a firmware update.
The last thing to make a good camera is the colour output - this is an area where Sony Ericsson is just about spot-on perfect with the G900. The colours are realistic and natural, although sometimes a tiny bit over-exposed. From time to time, you’ll also notice purple colour fringing, which isn’t exactly that nice to look at, although it can luckily be removed, if you know your way round a good photo-editor.
Video clips can be recorded on the G900 as well. You can record clips in up to QVGA size (320 x 240 pixels) with up to 15 frams per second, and a video bitrate of about 350 Kbps. The quality is just about average, and the codec used (H.263) is not the best solution out there. It’s a pity the framerate isn’t a bit higher, as videos recorded using 15 frames per second often look a bit choppy when played. You can check out a small video capture sample below (QuickTime required) or download it here (right click and save the file).
The Media application handles all the photos and videos on the phone, as well as music files - read more about the latter in the next section. For photos and videos it really does an excellent job, and is without doubt the best media manager on any smart phone. The rather slow CPU in the G900 does have a few limitations though, and it’s far from as quick and smooth as you’d have wished for it to be. It is especially rather slow when browsing through full 5 mega pixel photos in full view mode, where it can take up to several seconds for it to reload the next photo. In the thumbnail overview mode, though, everything is smooth and speedy. The photo viewer comes with a bunch of features, such as zooming, photo tags and really cool slide shows, and its nice on-screen controls will easily let you navigate through the photos. Everything can be flipped to landscape mode, making photos look even prettier on the 2.4 inch display.
The video part of the Media application works almost as well as the photo part. The application will allow you to access your video files and recorded video clips in one folder called ‘Videos’, while podcast video episodes can be found in a folder called ‘Podcasts’. Really rather simple, and the simple and effective layout makes it easy to find your videos. While playing a video, you’ve got the same nice, big video controls on the display making it easy to go to the next video or even do a bit of fast-forwarding. Both the photo and video on-screen controls disappear after a few seconds if you don’t use them. Tap the display once, and they’re back, if you need them.
Jukebox extraordinaire
The built-in music player is quite good, although not as feature packed as that in the Sony Ericsson W960, although the look is somewhat similar. Like the W960, the G900 is capable of playing most normal audio codecs, including the lovely eAAC+ codec for almost lossless audio at very low audio bit rates.
The music player is nicely set up, and it is easy to find just what you’re looking for, whether it’s a certain album, a special song or even an auto play list of 80’s hits. It’s all up to you. The G900 sorts your music in an endless amount of ways, including artists, albums, tracks, compilations, audio books and podcasts - even recordings! There’s not a chance of you not finding what you were looking for, unless it’s not on the phone, of course.
I tested the audio quality with the Sony Ericsson HPM-83 headset, and found it being very good. It was more than loud enough for me, and it was nice and with a good bass, too. Soft tunes sounded how they were meant to sound, although deeper and more harsh tunes were a bit distorted. If you’re fitted with a normal set of ears, odds are you won’t find this is a problem. Even so, if you are thinking this is a problem, the built-in 11-band equalizer should help you a bit.
The G900 also comes with a built-in FM radio with RDS support. The radio works really well, and its reception strength is quite good, too. The radio user interface is really nice, easy to use, and easily sets the standard for others to follow.
The G900 can automatically store up to 20 FM radio channels (frequencies), and each can be presented by name, song playing, etc., if the radio channels support RDS. What’s more is that the RDS in G900 not only automatically finds a better radio frequency, if the signal isn’t that good, it’s also capable of interrupting radio shows to give you traffic and news announcements, which is a really nice feature.
TrackID is supported by the G900, so you can make it record a short sample of a song playing in the radio or elsewhere, and have it send it off to Gracenote’s huge database, coming back only seconds later with full details about the song, and possibly also a link to a mobile music shop where you can buy the song in question. TrackID is simply a genius application, and it works a treat!
Gaming and fun
A Java-powered sudoku game by Digital Chocolate is the only pre-installed game in the G900. I don’t understand why there’s only one pre-installed game, when other business UIQ phones have more, better and native games pre-installed. When it comes down to it, though, the sudoku is rather nice, although the initial loading time takes almost 15 seconds! The touch screen capabilities are fully supported during the game, so you don’t have to use the keypad, if you don’t want to.
MusicDJ is Sony Ericsson’s tiny music application for creating your own tunes and beats. You can choose from 56 samples for each of the four instruments, which really isn’t bad. You can save your melodies once you’re done, and use them as ringtones, message tones, etc.
PlayNow is Sony Ericsson’s online content shop, where you can find songs, themes, wallpapers, games, applications, etc. Unfortunately, the G900 isn’t that very well supported at the moment, and it’ll probably take some time before you can use PlayNow on the G900 for more than the music shop.
Great W-LAN, not so great 3G
I hate to say this, but Sony Ericsson have made me do it, by not including HSDPA. Well, there - I said it! The G900 does not support HSDPA networks, so you’re limited to the slow 3G network speeds (up to 384 Kbps). You’re in luck, though, if you’re within reach of a W-LAN network, where you can make use of the built-in W-LAN up to 54 Mpbs (802.11b/g).
G900 supports Bluetooth 2.0 with speeds up to about 70 KB/s. The A2DP profile for stereo music streaming is also available. A cabled connection would be via USB - the G900 tops at just about 2 MB/s in file transfer mode (USB mass storage).
The built-in web browser is Opera Mobile 8.65, which in itself is fairly good. We have, however, got reasons to strongly believe it will be upgraded to Opera Mobile 9.5 with Flash Lite 3 support in the next firmware update, so look out for that one!
While there’s not really any news in Opera Mobile 8.65 compared to the one in i.e. P1 and W960, it has been optimized a bit for using it with the keypad only. You can change between tabs with the keypad, and there are nice short cuts available, although these were also present on other phones.
Websites can be displayed in either a fitted version or a full size version - both in either portrait or landscape mode. If you’re browsing a website where you can log in with an account, the browser can save this user name and password for you, allowing you to do the log in process much faster when you visit the same website in the future. It is, however, limited to only one saved account per website.
Download speeds are nice, and the browser supports light Java scripts with future support for Flash elements.
If you’re visiting a website with an RSS feed - such as this one - the browser will show a small RSS icon near the website tab - press it once, and the RSS feed has been added to the phone’s built-in RSS reader. The built-in reader is quite good, although it seems there’s no support for inline images.
The e-mail client is built right into the Messaging application. It is easy to set up your account, either following a guide or doing it manually. G900 supports push emails, and can be set to automatically check for new emails each hour or whatever you set it to.
HTML-formatted emails are shown as they’re supposed to look, and it supports large attachments, too, if you’re not too worried about your data traffic or you’re using a W-LAN connection. If you are, however, worried about the data costs, you can limit the G900 to only downloading a certain amount of e-mails, headers or even set a data limit.
Blue contacts
The phone book is one of the great things about the G900. It’s really good, and you can store details about almost anything on each contact in it. If the option isn’t there, you can just add the information in the contact’s note. You can also add a photo to your contacts, special tunes, etc. They’ve really thought about everything.
You can save up to 2,000 contacts, which should be enough for most.
Speed contacts is a nice addition as well. In here you can set up a list of your nine favourite contacts for easy access.
Messaging works a treat
Both MMS and SMS text messages are supported by the G900 handset. The MMS size limit is at 100 kilobytes, and the SMS message limit is about 1600 characters. The SMS storage depends on your phone memory, but I wouldn’t recommend anyone to keep more than a thousand messages. More than that is likely to slow down the phone quite a bit.
In addition to the SMS support, the G900 also features EMS support, so you can include graphical smilies, melodies, pictures, etc. in your SMS messages. It’s a nice twist, and makes it a bit more of a joy to read SMS messages.
You can use either the keypad for typing in words (multi-tap or T9) or you can use the touch screen with its handwriting recognition or even the on-screen QWERTY keyboard. The handwriting recognition works very well once you’ve got the hang of it.
Low on network reception
Although the G900 isn’t that great when it comes to network reception, I haven’t experienced any missed calls due to this. I’ve experienced very low reception strengths at times, but not bad enough to miss any calls.
Speaking of calls, the G900 is quite good. The volume is more than satisfactory, and the sound quality is very high as well. I haven’t tried out video calls on the G900, although it does support video calls. Who uses it, anyway?
The call manager holds a total of up to 30 calls. It’s not really finger friendly, but is still pretty good.
Conclusion
Sony Ericsson promises the G900 will change the way consumers think of smart phones. I think they’re right. Sony Ericsson really upped its game with the release of the G700 and G900 phones, and they’ve been greatly improved in both specifications and usability compared to previous Sony Ericsson smart phones.
Another important factor, that will bring along lots of buyers, is the extremely low price. The G900 retails at about £250, which is a bargain for a phone like this! It has no direct competitors being it’s this cheap with such a feature set, making it a really good purchase.
The battery life is just OK, without really being impressive. I had hoped for a little more juice, but I’m guessing the small size is the limiting factor when choosing the battery to go with the phone.
I can easily recommend the G900 to business men, everyday consumers - heck, even first time buyers! The G900 is really versatile, and it is in my opinion one of Sony Ericsson’s finest offerings as of yet.
[Review based on firmware revision R6H815]
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anyone has tried the download speed of g900 from wifi ???
can’t wait until they release an update (G90X) with HDSPA, GPS and physical soft keys, A better camera with protection for the lens and perhaps better battery life. A big step in the right direction!
it seems this is one of the first ericsson phones that finally supports flash lite 3. Very very important.
Excellent Review…
can’t wait to own one
Judging from the number of cons, I can’t believe that this phone still garners a “9″ rating. I understand that this is a blog all about se, but still, the reviews should be balanced and unbiased. Even if we are a bunch of se fanboys, which I admit I am. Who knows, maybe some se engineers read this blog and may try to improve their next designs based on what should be a “critical” analysis of their phones.
too bad no 850MHz band, otherwise this would be mine
Informatico,
I found no problems with the browsing speeds, nor with the download speeds.
Yes
stevie j,
If you’d read it, you’d see that most of the cons are minor ones, and the majority can be fixed in firmware updates. Having said so, the grade isn’t decided based upon the advantages and disadvantages, but upon having used the phone for almost a month and thereby upon the grades given. As always, the grade is an average of the various categories, and the G900 is a very good phone.
No need to think we or I am biased when it comes to reviews. If something is wrong, I’m going to write it, but if something is good, you betcha I’m going to write that as well. Now, I’m not sure if you fully read the review, but you’ll notice that it’s not all good.
i really liked the phone and the review is great Thanx
but what would sony lose if they included a memory card with the unit other than that the phone is great way 2 go sony ericsson!
Thanks, Mathew.
Including a memory card would push up the price a bit, and I’m guessing 90% of new buyers will either have a memory card that’s bigger than the included one, or they would go out a buy a bigger one. That, to me, is not that big a deal.
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Thanks for the review, Michell!
First things first: congratulations for the review!
And now, I want to ask you something.
Are you sure that “You can record clips in up to QVGA size (320 x 240 pixels) with up to 15 frames per second” ?
I am asking this, because, in the white paper, it says at 30fps, and, if you download this video
http://i.gsmarena.com/vv/reviewsimg/se-g900-preview/camera/gsmarena_g900_qvga.mp4
you will see that the video is quite smooth (altough I could not determine the actual amount of fps. I played it in VLC).
Thank you!
Thanks
Yep, I’m sure. Sony Ericsson - unfortunately - quite often changes the video specifications from prototype units to production units. It was lowered from QVGA @ 30 fps to QVGA @ 15 fps, as you can see in the video I posted.
By the way, it was changed in the white paper as well, although the release version did state 30 frames per seconds in QVGA resolution.
Good review, Michell.
When can we expect a review for the C902?
Thanks
Not too sure about the C902. Actually another guy here at the blog is supposed to write one, but I’m not sure how that’s going. I haven’t received a C902 yet because of that.
this looks excellent, it looks like a revolutionary way to use the phone and the interface is top notch kinda sad that nokia “the king of symbian” can’t even get something like a touch screen interface right great job MB!
The best SE G900 review. Thank you
Nice review, sorted a lot of things for me…but I have to ask…
Can you take a video of the phone opening a message from a cold start?
I’m not trying to grass the phone up or anything (actually I’m waiting for the price to go down a bit so I can buy it) but too many people have complained about slowness during messaging so I’m in doubt
Cheers! and well done once again!
Have you tried the media player with A2DP headphones? does the phone lags like the w910 or its fast?
Thanks for the nice comments, all.
g900guy,
No video, I’m afraid, but I can tell you it’s still a tad slow. It takes 4 seconds to load the Messaging application, but that seems to be the application that takes the longest of all. Once it’s already opened, there are no problems with the speed.
feco,
No, I’m afraid I didn’t try that.
[...] review of this phone appeared in USEB. Click here to read [...]
You Need to check out the Panorama Shoot mode in more detail, and perhaps append to your review- Its a fantastic feature that works like a breeze.- produces a panorama with no visible joins. Its unfortuneate that its not promoted as part of the proposistion.
Fantastic Phone, I love it.
good report and the job is well done i hope good continuation for the blog and sony ericsson i m loving it peace be upon you
How is the audio clarity of g900 compared to w960i, and what are the differences between them
How’s the speed when opening NEW SMS compared to previous UIQ3 models? It was too slow even when Messaging is already in memory. too much flickering in the message list.
Allan,
I would say it’s as good as W960, which is the best SE phone in terms of audio quality, in my opinion.
SuperInggo,
It’s still not excellent, but it’s noticeably faster in opening new SMS messages.
[...] You can read it here. [...]
Is the screen the same as K800 under the sun light
i mean u see a rainbow colors and the white is seen
I heard that UIQ phones cant record mp4 is that true
and what about the sound recorder (what is the type)can it record a phone call
nice review
I would rather keep my p1i with the keypad and looks and bigger screen. better battery life and light notifications!
I will wait for a better one! lol
which would u recommend to buy w960 or g900 provided that i buy a 8gb m2 card for g900
I buyed the phone, and brought it back after 3 days because:
-there is no way to separate photos/videos/images/songs in the player as I want, there is just all toghether or separated by mounth or by artist/cd/compilation….
So if you have images of frends/work/your girlfrend/of a lot of other girls/the party of saturday/panorama nature pictures, these are just all put togheeder in the mediaplayer.
-With the k550, its possible to create a playlist, from there put into it all song you want. With g900 you have to search every song and put it in singularly.
So if I want to organize 3 gigabites space of songs it would take 2 days.
-The archive (now the name is some like file manager) does not work well to see images, to zoom I have to do 5 clicks, then go out from the image and go to the next, then 5 click and so one. The k550 works much better.
- In the archieve it’s not possible to see wath’s in the phone and in the memory stick at same time.
-The multimedia player doesn’t work well to zoom images(5 megapixel pictures are oftem zoomed to see details)
-Color quality of photos in k550 is better than g900.
-The panorama option in k550 was possible to use with engagement and have good results. In g900 the phone decides for you. Why aren’t possible both applications?
-The battery at full charge dured 12 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(2 hour music play, 30 minutes recording sound, 2 times tryed to connect wireless, use of the phone for 2 hours, 4 calls of 3 minutes)
-the display reflects!!!!!!! If you go outside with luminosity at 60% you can forget your g900.
-to see the display outside, you have to put luminosity 100%=the battery goes down soon. The luminosity for the display should not set toghether with the luminosity for the keyboard.
-inside, you can see the display with luminosity put to 60%=every time you must go to the shortcut for luminosity, select the second page, go down, click enter, put to maximum, go out, save, and go out.
-there are no profiles to set up!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!
-the phone is a bit slippery on the back and not easy to hold securely in hands.
-the software is slow to load, and sometimes to use.
-the photos wieving is not as in the promotional video!!!!!!n You won’t be able to move photos on the screen how you see in the publicity!!!
-you can’t zoom a picture by clicking it in 2 points. (as seen in the promotional video)
-the software has problem, sometimes you see all horizontal. Sometimes it tilts. Sometimes you have to restart the phone.
-there is not one left sided touch to put on/off music. If you listen to a song, then receive a call, the song does not restart when you end the call.
-if you take out headphones the music continues automatically
-with headphones I could not always find how to put the music to the speaker.
-the volume for music play is too low if you are in to a bus or a train.
-the equalizer is not possible to set up manually (like it is in k550)
-every time i tried and failed to sincronize with sony ericcson pc suite 3.2 (where I have 480 contacts saved) the phone updates the library by it self.
-it’s not possible to use a contact backup in memory stick made with k550. No Idea how to convert the file! No way to find someway.
-The option in the different menu should be more that in phones k550/k770 w890, but often these are less.
-there is no way to know how many contacts are saved in the phone, how many contacts are saved on the sim.
-it isn’t possible to deactivate the logo of the phone company
-why it isn’t possible to save short messages on the phone, or on the memory stick??
1
I’m sorry for my english, I speak better Italian and German
2
I used the phone and did not update the software. Maybe some problems cud be solved.
3
I would take g900 and remake 40% of wath’s inside.
4 I miss my ex g900, but I have already got angry because of it. I will give a look at the c902. (why c902 keybord is so slyppery????????)
I hope my message is useful to somebody
Have a nice day
Ps to sony ericcson company: you have fans, listen and talk to them!!!
ps2 to sony ericcson company: if you need someone to try or ideate phones contact me!
I have forget to tank the review author, it is very good explained.
Ps the torch puts automatically of after about 50 seconds. If you are walking to a goa party in the woods you get mad before you arrive there :):):)
you find me on http://www.forumartimarziali.com->forum as qiplayer
You have obviously not used the phone properly, as there are many things that you say above that are incorrect.
Example:
All media can be tagged, and then you can browse by tags
You can also browse by PIcture, Video & Music.
Torch has three (obvious) settings
On
On for 1 minute
SOS
You need to remember that this is not a Cybershot, just a phone with a 5mp camera, so dont expect full cybershot functionalty
Was that for me or the commenter above?
If me, then excuse me…? The only media that can be tagged is the photo department like I said. Also, the Torch has four settings - the ones you mentioned and an OFF setting.
About the camera, who cares if it’s a Cyber-shot branded camera phone? I’d still judge it on how it performs and how it is compared to other similar camera phones.
Michell: What is the approximate boot time, Is there any firmware update available for fastening the SMS and MMS.. Thanks for the review…Looks great phone.. SE could have released with better processor..
The boot takes about 40-50 seconds. No firmware updates available yet.
Cheers
I answer to Lozz:
obviously in 3 days full use i cud not try everithing
still the flash did not worked properly (this is just a detail). I obviously tried the flash in mode on and not in mode 1 minute.
Maybe we have 2 different versions, or 2 different lots of the phone. Or maybe I expect other features like picture viewing and music player are at the same level of other sony ericcson.
Ps my brother uses a t610, after 5 years it works well and he uses to throw it on the table without care. :))
nice review - this is a phone i have been waiting a fair bit of time for on the specs and now its released it really helps to have a real world view.
I have an 8100 for work, a trion (tytn II) for freelance and i use the web and comms functions a lot so want similar options like push mail,IM, RSS or snap and blog functions with the camera/shozu which fit my personal usage to replace my k800i. But with that much reliance on data services i also wanted the wi fi option that until now seemed to be limited to smart phones and only the larger form factors whose battery life is not good enough (trion chewed 4 batteries in first year).
So this may not be perfect but its a big enough step to get me finally excited about a new release instead of a crummy iphone clone.
Problem is i have phoned sony ericsson UK and my current mobile provider 02 and sony say they have no stock and a delivery of “in a week or so” and 02 vary between trying to sell me the samsung g900, denying the existence of the phone at all, telling me from the script its not on their deliveries for the next month and call back next week and we’ll have them!!
Does anyone know what the UK allocation and available at retail date is?
Michael, Comment was for QiPlayer.
QiPLayer, Yea maybe, you seem to have got yours really early so maybe it needed a software update.
impressive review,
How it works with the gps enabler? can you use something similar to a Tom Tom without licence
Do google earth, calendar, gmai, msn, work well in g900???????
What about a .doc .pdf .xls????
Send video or images to a tv???
Those are my higher doubts
thank you very much.
Great review really helps with the decision making process. I note on some sites selling the SIM Free version that they state that ”some network specific functions may not work” …………none of the sites tell you what these “functions”are?
Regards
does the G900 have SensMe? if it does i do u open SensMe?
so is this phone worth to buy ?
since there’s a long list of negative feedback from user…
i was planning to buy this phone.. but i am hardly thingking about the freezez of opening of messaging is this solutionable? or not? if the firmware will be available it will be fixes?
thanx for the review,helps alot
Maybe if they attach 15″ LCD, GPS, 120 MPx camera, 1200 GB flash Card, full Qwerty keyboard, driving wheel, 180000 Va batery, flashlamp (police one), than some of you will be fully satisfied… Gi…
Ha ha!!
but sorry if we aspect to have the battery during 5-6 days how was with the old phones, and far the colors of the picture taken with k550/k750 but in a bigger format.
The to have an idea of what to expect we look whats on the market
is it possilbe to synq with mail for Exchange?? is the G900 better to use then the G700 if i dont use the 5 mgPix camera og the wiFi?
the best review so far…
best regards from Denmark
Yes to both
thx !!! if you can say YES to my next question…. then I will buy the phone tommorow
IS IT POSSIBLE to draw ( with the stylus) on a picture you have taken with the camera ?? fx cirkel around a face etc ?????
YES
You’ll have to browse the photos via the gallery application, and then select to edit it. Should bring up the editor
Hello Michell, great review; really cleared up many questions I had. However, it has also raised a few in the process. I was wondering if the web browser was updated to Opera Mobile 9.5 would it make a dramatic difference and when will this update take place, by your best guess. Also in regards to games and themes is their any sites to d/l these programes for free. Also, seeing as you recommend this phone would their be any others in this class and similar price range that you recommend? Thank you for your time and once again, Great job witht he review!
on my way to the shop…. bying it for DKK 2800:-)
another question - regardless maker/model/producer axcept Microsoft OS 6 etc. ( HTC, HP,) (a - which phone is the smallest one to sync mail ( Mail for exchange)
Bought two Sony g900’s, one brown for me and one red for the wife. Ours came bundled with 1 gig memory stick micros and bluetooth headsets, all for less than $500 each. The phones are working great. Just one big problem. Can’t connect it via bluetooth to my laptop or sync it with Sony PC suite for smartphones. Any advice? Please help as I really need it to sync with my outlook!
Jofarang, where did you buy those? Thanks, excellent review btw.
cheers
Found 1 big problem wif d new software update. tried a couple of stereo blue2 in d market, all of them can onli listen to music but cannot support d handsfree profile, onli se original 1 can. damm disappointed man, coz tot of getting motorola s605 to go along wif my se g900, still cant figure out y is tat happening man. anyone encoutered?
The simple fact that it works with Sony Ericsson accessories should tell you that there’s nothing wrong with the phone, considering Bluetooth is an open standard. The fault lies with the other accessories, not the phone.
I have had my Sony Ericsson G900 4 days ago.. Awhile ago, I accidentally dropped it with a very loud thud.. Now my concern is what might happen to my phone? Who among you people have the same experience as mine? What happened to your phones? Please reply..
Hello Anne,
I’ve had the misfortune of dropping every phone I’ve ever owned, the most spectacular one being my Ericsson T29 of yore flying out of my pocket while riding and ending up in 3 pieces (and surviving the ordeal, unbelievably). From this “experience”, i can tell you that if:
1) The display is fine.
2) The menu is fully functional, with no lags.
3)The SIM is accessed properly.
4)The phone doesn’t switch itself off suddenly.
and,
5)The keys are functional.
then there’s pretty much nothing wrong with your phone. Apart from the physical scratches, that is. You may give it for a routine service just to be double sure…
Well, do a series of revisions to comparaciòn SE G900 and a compact with the Nikon L15 Go down to 5 megapixels in the city of Merida, Venezuela. Greetings
http://picasaweb.google.com/jostosf/ViajeAMeridaDesdeElSEG900YLaCompactaNikonL15
Hi
Thanks for the great review!
One question - Does it synchronize with Outlook (mail, calender and contacts)?
thanks
Alon
wats better w960i or g900
and is there a big differnce between g900 and g900i
Michell, can a Firmware alone increase the G900’s video framerate? or something must also be done on the hardware part?
Hi there!
I have a question. As I am interested in this phone and am new to the smart phones, I want to know, what means, that you are runing applications in the background? Ok I know, that you are using many aplications at a time, but I want to know, that when you put a aplication on the standby panels, or on your shortcuts, does that mean, that it is runing in the background?
So if I put the calendar in my shortcut, does it run in the background? The more shortcuts, the more applications runing, the slower the phone?
Thanks
hi
i am thinking of buying P1i with GPS here in india. but now with this G900 i have to rethink.
what are other differences between P1i and G900 apart from 5 mp camera, numeric keyboard. are there any improvements in othere features and any other new features added?
can bluetooth GPS be used with G900 like with P1i?
has toucscreen menu improved than P1i? i would prefer the thumb rather than stylus for one hand operations for navigation etc.
if there are no significant improvements other than form factor i will stick to P1i with GPS. is SE discontinuing P1i because some retailers do not have P1i with GPS. the price here in india is approx US $ 400 and 440 respectively.
how GPS in P1i is performing. what software and maps are used. does google work well in india.
please help me.
I have my g900 for a bout a month now, and I love it, except, I keep having problesm with the touch screen. After 1 week of owning it, the touch screen didnt work and I could not even pick it up calls - since there answer function is on the touch screen. Recently, just after using it, the touch screen also decided not to work and I discovered a patch stuck to the inner screen - can you tell me what to do?
I love this phone but this is driving me crazy! I cant pick up calls and cant even switch off my alarm. AM about to give up…
nice review… umm could any one tell me if g900 can watch youtube via WLAN? cause mine seem to have a problem..
that’s what happens when you get a early released version of a phone. they come with all the bugs and you end up with the problems. however i think that this is a great phone i plan to get one and have read many reviews and watch alot of videos about performance on youtube and the strengths really out way the faults. there is no way anyone can get a phone with all the features, gui and performance just the way you like. the only way that will happen is if you build it yourself.
I can view youtube vids just fine… (but along the way I think I updated the firmware not quite sure… have had 3 dif. phones in the last 6 months) my browser is the Opera 8.65 (”941″)
damn enter button…
yes you can watch it via Wlan. and @FlatZo yeah its running in the background and I’ve tried to open up alot of aps and at 40-ish progs. its not noticably slower.
[...] http://blog.se-nse.net/reviews/sony-ericsson-g900-review/ [...]
Hmm, I really cannot wait to read your expert opinion for X1, I loved G900 when I first saw it is coming. Again as P1 user I of course love everything about this set and recommended it to many of my friends who were very impressed by my P1 while scared from the price and well the looks.
I own this mobile and can say that I’m fully enjoyed it. There are some bugs and not so good camera, but still it remains good smart phone.
have a good day ..
does this phone comes bundled with call recorder software ???
I’ve seen dummy models of the phone in CPW- and Ive got to say- they feel unbeleivably cheap. The raised bit on the D-pad also seems incredibly inconvenient, and the centre key is too small. Any owners care to comment on this?
Dear Michell,
Thanks for a wonderful review, I got a G900 a week ago and am still trying to figure our most of the applications.
I find that there no icons to indicate a read SMS and think I might be missing something … any ideas.
regards
Samir
nice review. Thanks.
How do we transfer music to the is phone, i don’t have memory card yet so i am transfering to the Phone memory, Using Media Manager. Can this phone be set up for WAp setting access internet for Free.
thanks
vik
when will the new version of g900 i think its the g90x be released?
Hi
Great tutorial and review. i loved the details and it helped me understand the phone better. anyway…i just bought the thing and i guess my version was imported because it was set to singapore time and when i tried to update it, it said i already had the updated singapore version. Is there any way that i can update it in a european format or something? Also, how come i cant access music from my memory stick? and its so much harder to receive picture texts. i cant even set it up. i cant set up my internet either. my old k700i was s much easier to work with. and its interface was much more attractive i think. The interface that you demonstrated above is even more attractive than the interface that i have. I can’t change custom made themes that i found and theres no way to change the shortcut keys. when i click upward, it goes to calendar, left goes to new text, down goes to contacts, and right goes to internet. how can i solve these problems? do you know? help please! a replied email would be much appreciated. Thank you so much.
i thinking to buy a smart phone, currently I have a w810. Which phone is better, N79 or G900?
Thks Sujith
Good review, man. Im glad that this morning I found your site and read all your explanation about G900. Before this, Im a little bit confuse on what phone should I buy for my self. But, right now, no doubt that I will buy this phone. I’ve already watch on youtube some of the videos about G900 + some of the reviews from another sites, and I believe this phone will satisfy me. Thanks a lot man. Good job!
very nice review, it helped a lot. There is no question that I’ll buy the phone as soon as possible.
hey uhm…ive got this REALLY BIIIG prob with my phone…i bought the g900 3 weeks ago and yesterday night, my g900’s touchscreen was working perfectly a few minz ago but after a few minz passed,i went to check on my phone and….MY TOUCHScREEN DINT WORK AT ALL!!!!!!!!could some1 plz tell me wat to do cause i am freakin out here man im scared cause i may have wasted 2800 hk dollars on this good for nothin,sorry excuse for a phone…some1 plz help me…
Really it is very good. because of my lack of knowledge while taking files through bluetooth it directly goes and saving to the phone memmory card. then it shows low space. I had insert 4GB card. how bluetooth file save to my memmory card directly
Nice review. Planning to get one.
i have had this phone since christmas 2008, i loved how smart it was and the optional touch sensitive pad. about 3/4 months afterwards it started to freeze, i didn’t mind i just restarted the phone and it returned back to normal. Then it got worse and the colour went very dark, sometimes unable to see the screen properly and it went slow and turned itself off. Then even worse, the phone will not come on what so ever now and it hasn’t for over a month, which means i have had to use my old phone which is now starting to break. I have been told that it may be to do with the firmware, software or hardware, has anyone experienced this? if yes please can you get back to me as i payed over £200 for this phone and has left me very disappointed.
this phone will stuck if there are too many applications inside…other than that, i loved it =)
I’ve bought SE G900 about a week ago and install some new applications and games and now I wanna delete some of them But I dont know how. Please someones help me
There is a uninstall option in settings->general->
my file manager is broke because every-time i use back button it goes to the start of file-manager unlike in other SE phones it doesn’t go a single level UP. does anyone know the solution???
Hi,
This is very useful.Now i need to know that is it support Google earth?